WordPress VIP vs. Acquia

Not all open source content management systems (CMSes) are the same. WordPress VIP, built on WordPress, and Acquia, built on Drupal, both offer open-source CMSes for the enterprise.

However, whereas WordPress powers more than 40% of the web, Drupal powers less than 2%. WordPress VIP delivers a broader ecosystem of technical solutions, agencies, and developers, a more open solution, and more intuitive tools for content creation and measurement than Acquia.

Contact Us

Ready to get started with WordPress VIP?

Best content creation tools

In today’s digital world, where content drives growth, businesses must build more content for more audiences faster. The WordPress Gutenberg editor helps everyone easily build modular, block-based content for use across channels. Acquia’s tools are more cumbersome, slowing content creation and delivery.

Content analytics and insights

WordPress VIP goes beyond just building content, to help you understand how that content is performing. Our integrated content analytics provide real-time feedback to help you improve your content initiatives. Acquia lacks deep content analytics as part of its solution.

High performance and secure

WordPress VIP is proven in the most demanding environments. On Election Night 2020, when FiveThirtyEight was hit with more than a billion requests, WordPress VIP didn’t miss a beat. And with its world-class security backed by FedRAMP certification, you know it’s secure.

Bigger ecosystem

WordPress VIP offers access to the widest range of plugins, themes, and integrations—tens of thousands. WordPress VIP also validates plugins and themes for performance and security to ensure they meet your exacting standards. Acquia offers access to a much smaller number of Drupal modules.

Biggest developer community

When you select WordPress VIP, you unlock a massive talent pool of WordPress developers. Today there are 740+ local WordPress groups in 109 countries. In contrast, only 11% of companies that used Drupal said they were finding it easy to recruit new Drupal talent.

Access to innovation

New technologies become available for WordPress first. For example, when Google launched Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) and Facebook launched Instant Articles, WordPress was the only CMS they supported on day one. In short, WordPress VIP customers get priority access.

Built for everyone

WordPress is the simplest and most ubiquitous solution, bar none. It is designed so that everyone—content creators, content developers, members of the community—can be productive on day one. Drupal is often much harder to use and requires more training, resulting in less employee productivity.

Simple, modular flexibility

WordPress VIP is designed with modularity in mind, integrating seamlessly with other solutions. In this way, it operates well in a best-of-breed environment. In contrast, Acquia pushes customers to adopt recently acquired marketing solutions instead of the best solutions on the market.

Backward and forward compatibility

WordPress VIP is committed to compatibility between versions. As the solution evolves, customers can upgrade components at their own pace. Drupal has struggled to maintain version compatibility, forcing many Drupal 7 customers into expensive migrations.

Go with the more open, more intuitive, more innovative, better supported CMS—WordPress VIP.

Capgemini removed a workflow “chokepoint” by moving from Drupal to WordPress VIP

  • Boosted productivity immediately, making it easy for content creators, editors, and developers to do their jobs and achieve the results they required.
  • Added 1,400+ new users on the platform after switching to WordPress.
  • Published 20,000+ pages in 10+ languages across 38 individual sites.

Grupo Abril streamlined publishing & ops after ditching Drupal for WordPress VIP

  • Empowered editorial team to get more done independently, reducing reliance on IT staff.
  • Sped up hiring and training thanks to the size of the WordPress media ecosystem.
  • Freed its deployment pipeline from gridlock caused by maintenance and security updates.

The ultimate guide to migrating your website to WordPress VIP

  • WordPress → WordPress VIP, Non-WordPress CMS → WordPress VIP—determining the type of website migration and best practices for each.
  • Project planning and content auditing to migrating the content and final QA review—scoping the entire website migration process.
  • Domains, URLs, plugins, security, site performance, content analytics, and integrations—building your website format and functionality wishlist.


We have enormously improved our efficiency since we don’t need additional teams or third parties to support our infrastructure. We can focus on what matters, which is producing content and generating value. We don’t have to care about servers and backups… all of that is covered with WordPress VIP.”

Ricardo Schulz, CIO, Grupo Abril

Busting 10 Myths About WordPress and WordPress VIP

The good and the not so good, what have you heard about WordPress and WordPress VIP? From “open source isn’t safe” to “WordPress VIP is CMS overkill,” there are plenty of myths and misconceptions in the wild that need addressing.

Why Ideasphere Labs Became a WordPress VIP Partner

Long before co-founding his Tampa, Florida-based agency, which specializes in large-scale CMS migration projects, Ned Pope saw first hand the benefits of switching to WordPress VIP.

Architectural gaps and vendor lock-in? Not on WordPress VIP’s watch.


Using WordPress VIP means that my team can focus on being creative and innovative, rather than spending time worrying about architecture.”

Ryan Pugatch, Vice President of Strategic Technology, Hachette Book Group